Day 599: Amos 8- Darkness To Dawn

This is what the Lord God showed me: behold, a basket of summer fruit. 2 And he said, “Amos, what do you see?” And I said, “A basket of summer fruit.” Then the Lord said to me,
“The end[a] has come upon my people Israel;
    I will never again pass by them.
3 The songs of the temple[b] shall become wailings[c] in that day,”
declares the Lord God.
“So many dead bodies!”
“They are thrown everywhere!”
“Silence!”
 
4 Hear this, you who trample on the needy
    and bring the poor of the land to an end,
5 saying, “When will the new moon be over,
    that we may sell grain?
And the Sabbath,
    that we may offer wheat for sale,
that we may make the ephah small and the shekel[d] great
    and deal deceitfully with false balances,
6 that we may buy the poor for silver
    and the needy for a pair of sandals
    and sell the chaff of the wheat?”
7 The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob:
“Surely I will never forget any of their deeds.
8 Shall not the land tremble on this account,
    and everyone mourn who dwells in it,
and all of it rise like the Nile,
    and be tossed about and sink again, like the Nile of Egypt?”
 
9 “And on that day,” declares the Lord God,
    “I will make the sun go down at noon
    and darken the earth in broad daylight.
10 I will turn your feasts into mourning
    and all your songs into lamentation;
I will bring sackcloth on every waist
    and baldness on every head;
I will make it like the mourning for an only son
    and the end of it like a bitter day.
11 “Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord God,
    “when I will send a famine on the land--
not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water,
    but of hearing the words of the Lord.

12 They shall wander from sea to sea,
    and from north to east;
they shall run to and fro, to seek the word of the Lord,
    but they shall not find it.
13 “In that day the lovely virgins and the young men
    shall faint for thirst.
14 Those who swear by the Guilt of Samaria,
    and say, ‘As your god lives, O Dan,’
and, ‘As the Way of Beersheba lives,’
    they shall fall, and never rise again.”
 
Meditation
Have you ever camped in a tent in the middle of the National Forest? It can be a glorious yet sometimes painful experience… as was the case this summer for our family. We had hiked two full days already, and on our last night, cold, pouring rain settled in over our little camp spot by an alpine lake. The darkness was penetrating as we waited for dawn. After a long night we eagerly waited for water to boil for coffee and the sun to rise for warmth. We stood between darkness and dawn waiting for light to come.
 
Amos’s words of the darkness of judgment are penetrating, leaving us longing for light. The basket of summer fruit he sees (1) symbolizes the end. In Hebrew the words sound the same, “summer fruit” and “end.” Ripened fruit has been harvested. The season is changing. The Day of Judgment is near.
 
The social injustices of Israel are focused with specificity. Business folks who love religious feasts move quickly back to work where they oppress the poor and trample the needy (4-6). The coming day of judgment for Israel was a day of darkness (9) where feasts turned into mourning. On the day of darkness the sun went down at noon, darkness in broad daylight.  Where is the dawn of Hope?
 
Light comes through the covenant love of God. The Day of Judgment for Israel is satisfied in the work of Jesus Christ. On the cross Jesus took the wrath of God against sin so all who trust Jesus for salvation can experience God’s covenant love. As Jesus died darkness came at mid-day (Mark 15:33) so dawn can come for children of God.
 
Jesus alone transforms darkness to light!
 
Richly Dwelling
-What from this chapter is difficult for you to digest?
 
-Where do you stand in life where you are eagerly awaiting dawn, the light of love and hope to rise on the horizon?
 
-Jesus entered darkness to give us light! How does God’s grace give you strength to stand and wait for dawn? Be specific.
 
Key Verse
9 “And on that day,” declares the Lord God,  “I will make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight.